For years you and I have been striving to restore common sense to our nation’s leadership. Many of you were at that first chilly Tea Party rally in 2009. As we gathered under the Gateway Arch we were on the cusp of a movement that would shake the Progressive establishment, especially as we saw it embodied by the Obama agenda.

Our opponents revere big government, and the freedom agenda we sought to implement rattled them. Our peaceful protests were vilified. They were shocked by the shellacking they suffered in 2010, losing the US House and narrowly holding the US Senate.

Below the radar, commonsense conservatives began to participate in GOP politics on the grassroots level. We saw surprising victories for uncompromising conservative candidates.

2012 was a rough election. We lost some, we won some. We learned undoing nearly a century of Progressive erosion of the foundations of our nation was not going to be a cakewalk. However, all through that time our friends whose heart beat with a love of liberty were doing the hard work of helping the Republican Party organize and reconstitute into an opposing force against the relentless work undoing the American Dream.

Saturday, I was honored to be elected to be Chairman of Missouri’s Republican Party. This has less to do with my own merit and more to the fact that the grassroots are charting a course to reignite the beacon of hope and liberty that America is. I cannot tell you how encouraged I am by the direction in which our friends and colleagues are steering our state party. I cannot tell you how much it means to me to be part of that effort.

I want all of you to be encouraged too. Most of you know me, you know what I am all about. I mean to do all in my power to be a zealous advocate for freedom as the Chairman of the Missouri GOP.

We have a lifetime of work ahead of us, and only a few years in which to succeed. The need is urgent, our opponents hold all the high ground in politics, culture, the academy and the media. Our only ally is that history and the Almighty acknowledge and bless those who love freedom and work to secure it for their fellow man.

We are surrounded, but as the great Marine Chesty Puller noted, being surrounded simplifies the situation. We can advance in any direction.

Mount up.

All the best.

Ed

For those of you who wonder "how can I help" or "what can I do next", please stay in close touch with me by email - ed@edmartinformissouri.com or by phone at (314)256-1776. Together, we will take back America and make Missouri great.